Chinese Scallion Pancakes – Spring onion Paratha

Enough of husbands and bosses, am going to talk about my Grandmother today. She is one lady in my life, who is extremely fond of food and never hesitates to try her hands on anything new. She is the one who loves all the chocolates’ flavors I get for my family from here. Which is such an adorable thing she does, considering she cant even eat most of them fully. So she just taste them, praises and then give it back to other kids. We laugh sometimes, and get annoyed too but then its her 🙂

She stays in her own little fairy land, where she refuses to believe that there any other place in this world apart from Indian subcontinent. And hence, she never believes me when I tell that that every Country has its own cuisine. Although she totally got me when she asked about the English cuisine and I couldn’t answer firm. But anyway!! Give her any International dish to eat, she will give her an Indian name. Like when I was in college, I got a Pizza for her. It was a plain Domino’s Margarita Pizza with lots of extra cheese on top. I only wanted to see her reaction when she take the first bit, which to my utter disappointment was .. well, nothing. When she was done with almost a quarter of it, I asked her if she liked it. And she said “what’s there to like in a plain paneer paratha made with tomato chutney? It’s nice, different and somehow I think paneer is stale since it has got stuck to my dentures”.

We laughed at it, and when I told her that its not an Indian dish she actually took up the challenge and created something similar on Tawa at home. She only asked me to get the same quality “paneer” ( which was mozzarella cheese ) and then she created almost the same thing. Difficult to argue with grannies, no! 🙂

That said, even I somewhat believe her theories now. Most of the International dishes I eat resemble some or the other Indian recipe. Since India is such a big piece of land, the regional and cultural habits varies every 10 miles. Except some baked goodies of course, but then I haven’t had all of South Indian and up northern stuff either. And these two regions are very famous for their baked food.

Like these Chinese scallion pancakes… There is a story in China that that pizza is an evolution of the scallion pancake, brought back to Italy by Marco Polo. A humorous newspaper article, describes the invention of pizza this way: Marco Polo missed scallion pancakes so much that when he was back in Italy, he tried to find chefs willing to make the pancake for him. One day, he managed to meet a chef from Naples at a friend’s dinner party and persuaded him to try recreating the dish. After half a day without success, Marco Polo suggested the filling be put at the top rather than inside the dough. The change, by chance, created a dish praised by everyone at the party. The chefs returned to Naples and improvised by adding cheese and other ingredients and formed today’s pizza.

No idea if this is a true story, but I heard a similar one on our trip to Rome from our tour guide. Weather true or not, this indicates that no cuisine in this world is its own. These pancakes can easily be taken as Indian Spring onion Parathas. Since these are made using the dough instead of the usual pancake batter technique, they are a bit different than the rest of their lot. They were fluffy, spicy and very filling when eaten with sauces and dips. In fact I had them with Paneer cashew for the dinner and they served as perfect Indian flatbread.

This is my first entry to International food challenge started by Shobhana and Saras. This is a wonderful group where foodies are trying food items from around the world, except India. Looking forward to this fun and learning journey 🙂

What you need?

1 cup All-purpose flour

1 cup Whole wheat flour

1 tsp Salt

1 cup hot boiling water

1/2 cup spring onion – chopped small

2 tbsp oil

How to make?

In a deep bowl mix together flour, salt, 1 tbsp of oil and water. Knead dough until soft and smooth forming a ball. Cover with a damp paper towel, let it stand for 20 minutes.

Divide dough in to 5 or 6 pieces of equal size and roll the pieces into balls. Place a ball of dough on a well-floured work surface and roll out into a thin circle

Spread a teaspoon of oil evenly over the pancake and sprinkle some salt. Sprinkle some scallions over the pancake.

Roll the pancake up from one end like a rug, then curl the roll around in a spiral and pinch the end to the roll so stays wrapped.

With the palm of your hand, press the roll from the top to flatten it. Roll it like a chapathi

Heat 1 tbsp of oil in a skillet over medium-high heat until oil is shimmering. Cook the pancakes, flipping once, until golden, 2 to 3 minutes per side. Drain on paper towels, Season with salt.

Cut into wedges, and serve with sauce and dips

My Notes:

I have used half whole wheat flour purely for the health reasons, it will always taste better with APF used alone.

You may also knead the spring onion bits within the dough, that will make life easier while rolling the whole dough ball.

Add some spices of your choice, I am going to add some minced garlic next time to see how it comes up.

Use 2 tbsp of yoghurt while kneading the dough for the softest and fluffy pancakes.